Family no strangers to service, hard work

Sunday

Sep 29, 2013 at 9:10 PMOct 1, 2013 at 12:16 PM

By Scott J. Croteau, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Viviane R. Gaffney sits back and watches her seven children eat at the dinner table. She has a look of motherly pride on her face, not because all her children and many of their spouses have dedicated their lives to helping others, but simply because her family is so close.

The matriarch and her late husband, William G. Gaffney, had simple rules — work hard, have pride in your work and earn your own way. They didn't care what profession the children chose, as long as they followed the family mantra.

"I'm just so lucky," Viviane R. Gaffney, 83, said. "We never told them they had to do this or that; we just wanted them to do the best they could."

The siblings don't talk much about work at the dinner table. Sometimes one of them is called in to the job, and considering that most of them work as firefighters, police officers or nurses, those calls aren't unusual.

But aside from a few quick quips, family gatherings are about family and nothing else.

"My father worked for the federal government; he never missed a day of work in 35 years," said Worcester Police Lt. Thomas Gaffney, a 54-year-old investigator in the Detective Bureau. "They really instilled in us a work ethic, not police or fire, but a work ethic. You go to church every Sunday, family first and you work hard in life. That's what it was all about."

The oldest sibling in the family, Michael Gaffney, 56, will always throw in his one-liner.

"He says he is the only one that has to work," said Joseph Gaffney, a 52-year-old Worcester Fire lieutenant, referring to Michael.

To give a quick rundown of the family's jobs:

◼Michael is a plumber and is married to Ann, a nurse.

◼Thomas is a police lieutenant who is married to Kathleen, a nurse.

◼ Patricia Webster, 53, is a nurse who is married to Richard, a U.S. Postal Service worker.

◼Joseph is a fire lieutenant and married to Pauline, a nurse.

◼Viviane M. Dumas, 50, works for the city's Elder Services and is married to Francis, a fire lieutenant.

◼Paul, 49, is a police sergeant and married to Sheila, who works for Leicester police.

◼Stephen, 46, is a fire lieutenant and is married to Chrissy.

All of the women working as nurses graduated from the Worcester City Hospital School of Nursing.

Thomas has two sons: Terrence Gaffney is an officer in the Gang Unit and Patrick is an officer at UMass Memorial Medical Center and working to become a Worcester police officer.

The list of public servants doesn't even include other family members — nieces, nephews and other spouses — working as nurses or attending college for nursing degrees.

Sit-down Sunday dinners are a tradition in the family. Sometimes Viviane Gaffney would wonder how many of her children and their families would show up for dinner as she peeled 10 to 15 pounds of potatoes. Since police departments, fire departments and hospitals don't shut down for the holidays, there is always a question of who will show up at holiday gatherings.

Like any mother, Viviane worries about her children, but tries not to think about the fires, accidents, criminals and injured that her children see.

"I try not to think about it. I think if I ever did I would never sleep," she said. "I just say 'God's hands' and pray for them every night."

The public safety siblings will see each other at scenes of incidents. Joseph points out that sometimes he will transport a patient, only to have one of his sisters or sisters-in-law tend to the person at the hospital.

The children know when to shut off work talk and that is pretty much at any family gathering. They rely on one another and often work on each other's homes.

"We're the brawn. They're the brains," Joseph said, pointing over to the women in the family.

"The nurses, they work harder than any of us," Thomas quickly chimed in. "They are the backbone of the family."

As humble as the family is about their professions, they clearly understand and embrace the family history.

When Terrence first became a police officer, it was around the same time his Uncle Paul was promoted to sergeant. Terrence was given Paul's patrolman's badge number.

Thomas' uncle was a police officer in the city and he carried his uncle's nightstick on patrol when he first started.

Joseph has some of his grandfather's gear from when he worked as a firefighter at the Webster Square station.

But as they talked about some of the history of public service within the family, the siblings looked around at one another and said working hard is the most important thing passed on from generation to generation.

"Our dad was always so proud that we were hard workers. He didn't care what we did; you work hard, and you are honest and take care of each other," Joseph said.